A podcast exploring the anime industry as it connects with Canadian media and fandom. If you're in Canada, you get news and analysis directly relevant to you. If you're outside of Canada, you get a bit of a different perspective than usual. Discussion of streaming, broadcast and cultural impact are all on the table as I try my hardest to resist indulging in Bionix-related nostalgia.

Thursday, 29 August 2019

In 1997, CBC's Undercurrents ran a legendary exposé on otaku as obsessive collectors of data. It featured William Gibson, Hitoshi Doi, as well as a charming fellow with an overzealous fixation on Sailor Mercury. That fellow was Gregory Taylor, and he joins me in this episode to talk about the segment, as well Sailor Moon chat groups in the 1990s, rogue anime screenings at the University of Waterloo, anthropomorphized math concepts and his own cataloged experiences in the world of Sailor Moon online roleplaying.

In a separate segment, I also talk about Anime Revolution 2019, and the unfortunate controversy surrounding the event this year.

Karl and Corey share their thoughts on the horrific arson attack at Kyoto Animation. We also discuss the surprising prospects of Toonami on Adult Swim Canada, and why it may not have the content you want! We also go predictably in-depth about Warner's recent announcement of HBO Max and how it has possibly destroyed any reasonable expectation we had for their streaming strategy.

Tuesday, 18 June 2019

Ashley Hakker joins me to talk about the remarkable, unstoppable life-form that is Anime North. All of the planning in the world could never have prepared me to properly absorb this convention in one go, and together we talk about its history and the exact ingredients that caused it to become the giant glorious mess that it is today.

Friday, 31 May 2019

The folks at the Anime Roundtable Podcast (Mike Nicolas, Kevin Ng, with James Austin) were nice enough to have me on as a guest at one of their live recordings at Anime North 2019. Also featuring an appearance from Anime North's Assistant Head of Programming, the inimitable Norm McEvoy. (I say this after having tried to imitate him.)

Saturday, 11 May 2019

Not to be confused with the Margaret Atwood novel, Cat's Eye (or "Signé Cat's Eyes") aired in French on Radio-Canada in the late 80s and early 90s, and oh boy did it stick out like a sore thumb on that line-up. Chris joins me once again to share his own experiences watching the show. Dawn from the Anime Nostalgia Podcast also appears to give her own perspective on how well this show really holds up. We touch on many important points such as Club Dorothée, the connections to Nicky Larson (sometimes referred to as "City Hunter") and what it must be like to discover classic anime through Citypop and Vaporwave videos as opposed to just being old.

Wednesday, 10 April 2019

With little notice, Corus launched the world's first ever 24/7 Adult Swim network, and the good certainly seems to outweigh the bad... at least if you ignore the lack of streaming options! Sketch from the Toonami Faithful Podcast, as well as Karl, help me take a close look at what this new channel does right, what it does wrong, and what it still needs to do to truly capture the Adult Swim voice. The channel's launch also raises many questions, such as: will this stuff ever appear online again? What is the future of CanCon on this station? WILL WE EVER SEE TOONAMI? We do not have answers to these questions, but we certainly have plenty of speculation. You like speculation, right?

Monday, 4 March 2019

With nine different voice actors for Goku and a lot of bad theme songs, the Dragon Ball franchise has been an odd patchwork in Canada, but not one that has derailed its success in any way. Geoff and Yazy join me to talk about discovering and following Dragon Ball/Z/GT through all its different dubs, and try our best to clear up some misconceptions on why so may different versions hit the airwaves. We have so much fun that we completely forgot to mention that Dragon Ball Evolution aired on YTV at one point.